I resisted the temptation to check out the re-imagining or whatever they call remakes these days because of a lingering affection for the 1970s show but was persuaded to catch it by the enthusiastic recommendation of Kevin Smith in his diary. Serves me right for being a snob – this is an excellent, intelligent, exciting series. To be honest, it’s better than the original which struggled to live up to the excellence of its premise, but it pays due homage. Indeed, this version would prove to be a lot more loyal to the premise, constantly going back to the idea “what would happen if this actually happened” instead of being bogged down with lots of boring stories about people crash landing on to planets and running into guest stars.
Some random thoughts – I don’t think they needed to explain away names like Apollo and Starbuck, and the sex female cylon feels like a sop to the fan boys (but it is a clever sop and she is one sexy cylon). And the scene between the commander and Apollo where they talk about Zac is clunky. But the rest of it is great. So many improvements over the original - Mary McDonnell’s president offers democratic government a decent face, the battle scenes are superb, the sheer tragedy of it incredibly moving.
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